


Human Interaction

by FluffyTheUnicorn



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, but this isn't like pegsnavi, don't worry i'll write more chell/mel, important: they talk, please, please hug chell, tbh i might be the first one to put chell x mel on ao3, this kinda got rushed towards the end but i didn't want to make this really hecking long, wheatley is mentioned but it's because chell needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 07:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8570605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyTheUnicorn/pseuds/FluffyTheUnicorn
Summary: Chell doesn't like people, let alone talking to them, or forming relationships. That's bad when you fall and lose your wallet.





	

Being a test subject sucks. That was always Chell’s life motto. Working at a dead end job? At least you’re not a test subject. Living in a dingy apartment? At least you’re not a test subject! 

Chell sighed and got off the bus. Man, people were loud. Those elevators were kinda- no! She was thinking about Aperture again. Shit, another penny for the “Aperture Thought Jar”. She was trying to forget that place, which was hard when your life motto was ‘at least I’m not a test subject’. Funny thing about getting lost in your thoughts, you often find yourself falling. In Chell’s case, it was onto the hard concrete of the sidewalk.

“Excuse me, ma’am, are you alright?” A woman had kindly offered Chell a hand. Chell pushed herself up and nodded politely. Human interaction wasn’t really her thing. She quickly tried to walk away, in a polite manner. 

“Um, ma’am?” The woman called after Chell. She decided to speed-walk. Human interaction really wasn’t her thing. 

She plunged her hands into her pockets and then realized her wallet wasn’t there. It fell out of her jacket. The woman was probably trying to hand it back to her. She stood still and quickly turned around, but didn’t see the woman anywhere. She tried heading back to the bus stop, but the woman had pretty much disappeared. Shit! Damn human interaction! Chell sighed. It was probably best to go home and hope that her wallet magically appeared at her doorstep. Chell walked down the street to the dingy old apartment building where she lived. 

As a warm welcome, a sign on the elevator read “OUT OF ORDER”. Well, it’s not like she couldn’t climb up stairs to the fourth floor, she’s flung herself in the air at least 100 times. Dammit, another penny for the Aperture Thought Jar! Chell walked quickly up the stairs, hearing her own loud, echo-y footsteps against the wood. Soon enough, she flung open the door to the fourth floor, trudged to her apartment, and then, with a sigh and a thud, threw herself on her couch. She tossed two pennies into the glass jar sitting by her TV, and then heard a loud knock on the door. Strange, she didn’t know who would be coming to her apartment. It’s not like she talked to people. 

She opened the door, and the woman from the bus stop was standing there. She held Chell’s wallet with a nervous smile. When Chell actually looked at her, she realized she was kinda pretty. She had red hair, tied up neatly, and a positive demonear. 

“Ma’am, I got your wallet. You dropped it at the bus stop, I tried to give it to you but you were in such a hurry, sorry,” Her polite explanation turned into a worried stutter, but Chell smiled. 

“Thanks,” Chell grabbed her wallet. “My name’s Chell.”

“Mel! My name’s Mel!” Mel was oddly flustered, and had a charming innocence. The charming innocence that was deceiving, just like that disgusting blue orb.

“Do you want some tea or something?” Chell said, in an effort to thank Mel. 

“That’d be great!”

Chell swung open the door, and Mel walked into the apartment. Chell poured some iced tea into two plastic cups,the kind you buy at Dollar Tree in a pack of twenty for two bucks, and placed the two cups onto a table with some scribbles on it. She had doodled on that table one late night when she couldn’t sleep. They were meaningless doodles, of hearts and cubes and hearts on cubes, but weird nonetheless. Hopefully Mel wouldn’t notice them, Chell was trying to come off as a normal human being, though Mel’s first impression was probably more along the lines of “socially awkward”.

Mel smiled, and cheerfully took the tea. She started fidgeting with her hair, and her charming aura made Chell both love her, and fear her. She started talking about tea, and other meaningless small talk, normal human interaction. Chell tried to keep up with her, but something about her reminded her of that disgusting blue robotic sphere that had betrayed her, and she couldn’t take it. She was crying, and she didn’t even realize it.

“Ma’am? Are you okay? Is something wrong?” Mel tried her best to be comforting. She cared, and Chell tried to tell herself that. “If it helps, I was once stuck with a robot orb, trying to get my way out of a very bad place, but it was all okay in the end.” 

The hell? This stranger somehow had some hidden life story that she could turn into a joke, and it was just like Chell’s. It was exactly like Chell’s.

Chell wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket, and reached for the box of tissues she always kept near the couch. Something was telling her she was going to be okay.

Mel smiled softly, and spoke in her beautiful voice. “You’re going to be okay.” 

Mel hugged Chell, gently, and for once, she felt safe.


End file.
